Radiology and Learning

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mrmandrake

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Hey guys,

I'm an M2 and in the process of figuring out what I want to do for the rest of my life. I'd like to hear from some residents and attendings about their thoughts on radiology and the volume of learning involved. I'm told that radiology residency involves some pretty intense reading and learning compared the other specialties. I'm no stranger to hard work (I worked full time 40 hours/week as a full time student in undergrad) but at some point, I'd like to get into a routine and settle down and not have to deal with learning 30 pages of dense text everyday.

Although I admittedly don't have much experience with the other specialties, it seems like the learning is a lot less intense. I've shadowed a pediatrician, a internist, and an ER doctor. It seems like the learning is a lot less intense because it's stuff you learn in med school. Even as a surgeon, I think that you just have to practice (time in the OR) and learn the anatomy a little bit and you're good. Showing up here is half the battle.

I've heard radiology is like going through med school all over again. You go home for the day and you have to read for a several hours. It seems mentally exhausting. The other specialties I mentioned just seem physically exhausting. Are my concerns legit? I'd appreciate any residents and attendings that could chime in on the subject. Thanks!

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There are a ton of fields which require a lot of reading and learning of their residents. Heme-Onc, Derm, Radonc, Gas, Ortho, etc- all of these require a decent amount of reading, because they aren't taught very extensively in medical school. It isn't just Rads (in fact, the average Derm resident probably reads more than the average rads resident).

You should consider the overall amount of hours each resident works per week. Surgeons work 80-90 hours, and don't have to read at all. Medicine residents work 80 hours, and maybe read 1 hour per week. Rads residents work 50ish hours per week (sometimes more, sometimes less), and read maybe 5 hours a week (at most), for a total of 55 hours of work- that's 25 hours or more less than medicine or surgery residents (an entire day per week!).

Overall, the hours for Rads are substantially better than the vast majority of specialties, even if you include reading.

To say that something is "mentally exhausting" doesn't really make sense. What would be more "exhausting" for you: sitting in the OR for 10 hours, working on the medicine floors for 10 hours, or reading films and read a few textbooks for 6.5 hours? I don't think there is anybody on planet earth that would be more exhausted by the latter.

In the long run, none of this stuff is important. You should find what you love to do, and do it.
 
here's the thing about reading and residency, regardless of what field you're in, if you want to be a good doctor and not miss things you will have to read, it is simply impossible to learn everything under the sun about whatever field of medicine without reading, does that mean you have to read 3 hours a night after a 12 hour day, no, reading can take place at work, when you have down time, on a weekend

I started off as a rads resident and now in surgery, and I certainly had to read a lot more as rads merely b/c the value of the radiologist isn't being able to recongize a simple pneumonia on CXR, any knucklehead (in theory can do that), but to not confuse pneumonia with a tumor or not to mistake a benign lytic bone lesion in a kid for cancer and send them for a painful and emotionally trying biopsy

while in rads I read maybe 3 hours a day, that included 15 minutes here or there about cases that I wasn't sure about, I would usually get to work about an hr early each day and read, and would stay an hour late and read if I had to, some residents became good w/o reading so much, but rads isn't like other fields in that it's much more cognitive, you can't just order a lab test or image if you're stuck, if you don't know, odds are nobody else does, but you could alwasy recommend a biopsy

and I certainly worked more then 55 hours a week, it was close to 70, and when on IR or other procedural rotations occasionally would go over

as a medicine prelim I read an hour or 2 every other day, mostly at work,
occasionally at home after work

on surgery it's about the same as medicine, the reason for the discrepency is familiarity with the material, you just get more exposure of the primary specialties in med school,

but 2 things made reading easier, 1) I really love what I do regardless of the field 2)intense, numbing fear that I will miss something

but it is true, do what you love, and reading won't seem like such a big
 
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Would you rather read for an extra hour a day or get scutted out for an extra 5 hours a day?
 
I guess I didn't think there were so many fields that required a lot of reading like rads. You guys make some good points. Thanks for setting me straight on some of these issues. I guess I'm torn between rads and a more "hands on" speciality like surgery and trying to find reasons to pursue each one. Time to do more shadowing ...

youngdoc8205: could you tell me more about why you switched to surgery? You could PM me if you want. Thanks.
 
I guess I didn't think there were so many fields that required a lot of reading like rads. You guys make some good points. Thanks for setting me straight on some of these issues. I guess I'm torn between rads and a more "hands on" speciality like surgery and trying to find reasons to pursue each one. Time to do more shadowing ...

youngdoc8205: could you tell me more about why you switched to surgery? You could PM me if you want. Thanks.

Why don't you try IR? You get to read, do a fair amount of diagnostics and still get to do a lot of procedures.
 
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